


Maybe Not

by Pembrooke330



Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Jeronica, Riverdale, Veronica Lodge - Freeform, fermione, fp jones - Freeform, hermione lodge - Freeform, jughead jones - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 11:33:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17344511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pembrooke330/pseuds/Pembrooke330
Summary: FP smiled to himself when he thought about the look of complete and utter elation on Jughead’s face when he’d told his dad the news of his relationship with the raven-haired daughter of Hiram and Hermione Lodge.It forced FP to think back to the day that he had seen Hermione in the halls of school, no longer wearing her Catholic girl getup, but instead, wearing a crimson red silk dress and a set of pearls around her neck. She looked like a woman who bathed in diamonds and drank champagne every night. The transformation looked incredible on her, but it had created an undeniable ache in FP’s heart.





	Maybe Not

“Veronica Lodge isn’t your typical girl, Jug. She knows what she wants, and she knows what she  _doesn’t_  want. Her mother was the same way. They are formidable women, but they will love you hard and stay by your side with fierce loyalty. So get used to other guys sniffing around, but never let it put you in a position of losing her. Women like Veronica and Hermione are not women that you ever want to let slip through your fingers.” FP had said during an unexpected heart to heart with his young son.

Jughead had been letting jealously cause an issue between him and his new girlfriend Veronica Lodge, and FP didn’t want to see his son make the mistakes he had made in his past when it came to women he cared about.

FP sighed as he watched Jughead go back to his spot on the couch, putting aside another beer in favor of opening is laptop to do some writing.

It made FP proud to watch his son put his time into something productive, something he knew was an outlet for all the pent up angst that Jughead had experienced over the years.

FP wished he’d had something like that when he was his son’s age.

Instead, he’d thrown his time into partying with friends and sleeping with any girl whose legs he could charm his way in between, which had never been very difficult. It was as if every girl in school wanted a chance with FP Jones. He was the star quarterback of the football team and student council president. Everyone knew who he was and everyone wanted to be in his orbit.

But there had always been one girl that he could never seem to charm enough. No matter how many times he’d attempted to flirt with her, or even just hang out with her, Hermione Gomez was the one girl who wouldn’t give in.

She was subdued and smart, a good Catholic girl from a family that struggled financially but still managed to make ends meet. And it was obvious that her family’s strains when it came to money haunted her. She rarely came to social events at the school or outside of school, but could always be found with a book in quiet corners.

FP would pass by her and glance at the cover of whatever she was immersed in. It was always some classic, a book that wasn’t even on the assigned reading list for Ms. Green’s English class.

He was so intrigued by how intently she would read that he had begun going to the library and checking out the same title.

Sometimes it was something he had a hard time understanding, but occasionally he came across one that consumed him to the point where he couldn’t hold back his need to talk to her about it, to her get take on what she thought of it.

And that’s just what he decided to do when he saw Hermione sitting on the back steps of Riverdale High eating an apple during lunch, a pair of white knee highs stopping at just the right point to be able to get a good look at her tanned legs before they disappeared underneath her navy plaid skirt.

“I’m just curious…is there a part from The Alchemist that stands out to you the most? I…I saw you reading it last week after biology.”

FP wasn’t surprised when Hermione looked up at him as if he’d just told her that his mothership was on its way to pick him up and take him back to Neptune. She pushed up her glasses on her nose and cleared her throat.

“Well…funny you should ask. I often think that a person’s favored quote from The Alchemist has a lot to say about who they are as a person.”

FP smiled as he took a seat on the step next to her.

“Well, my favorite quote is the one about how wherever your heart is then you will find your treasure there. What does that say about me?” He asked her, waiting for her analysis of who she thought he was when she barely knew him.

Hermione nodded.

“That’s a good one. And…I think it says that you have put your heart into football to the point that you will let it lead you to great things. It will lead you to accolades and medals, fame and fortune. All the things you’ve desired after growing up on the Southside of town.”

The look on FP’s face must have given away everything he was thinking because she then followed it up with.

“I’ve seen you around. I live on the border of El Barrio. But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone your secret.” She said with a furtive glance around them.

FP gulped, completely caught off guard.

“I didn’t know you even knew who I was.” He mumbled, feeling embarrassed but realizing that wasn’t Hermione’s intent. She admitted she was from the Spanish side of town, and it was just as rough of a place as the Southside.

“Everyone knows who FP Jones is.” Hermione replied as she started to get up to leave.

“Hey, wait a minute. You didn’t tell me your favorite Alchemist quote.” He said to her with a smirk.

Hermione has only made it up a few steps before turning around to answer him.

“I love it so much that I know it by heart. In fact, I live by it.” She said before continuing.

“’When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.’”

She bounded up the stairs and back into the school, leaving FP spellbound, and he’d never be the same.

\---

It wasn’t long after that conversation with Hermione about The Alchemist that the two would often find themselves passing by in the halls, saying hello, and occasionally stopping to talk about _The Importance of Being Ernest_ or _The Great Gatsby_ or even _The Lord of the Rings_. And soon, those casual run-in's turned into dinners at Pop's and study sessions at the library.

FP had learned so much from the unassuming, self-proclaimed “book nerd”, and he was captivated by her vast knowledge of the world when she’d never even left Riverdale. She cared about what was out there, and she knew where she wanted life to take her.

“I have big plans.” She had told him a few days before they both landed in detention for separate incidents.

“Do your big plans have anything to do with why you’ve been hanging out with Hiram Lodge?” FP asked, unable to hide the contempt in his voice when it came to the notoriously petty criminal of the school.

He was the last person FP could imagine Hermione dating, and he wanted more than anything to protect her from being corrupted by the mobster wannabe.

Hermione had rolled her eyes.

“Please, FP, if you’re really my friend, you won’t judge me like everyone else does. Hiram isn’t as bad as everyone thinks he is. There’s a whole other side to him.”

But that didn’t stop FP from wanting to do whatever he could to try and win Hermione over. He’d never had a problem getting a girl to give into his ability to say all the right things and give her that look that he had perfected. But Hermione was impervious to any of it, and it only made him want her even more.

And as much as he wanted to forget about the time the Midnight Club had spent playing Gryffons and Gargoyles, it had been during those meetups to have a night of role playing fun with an unlikely group of misfits that led to him finally getting up the courage to ask Hermione if she would just give him a chance. Just one chance, and if she wanted nothing to do with him afterwards, he would leave her alone when it came to her love life.

But she had pushed him away, her intuitiveness when it came to him setting off alarm bells that shut down any chance he had of trying to win her heart for himself.

More so than being embarrassed, he had been crushed.

“I’m not actually _into_ you, FP.”

The words still haunted him, even now as he sat listening to Jughead leave Veronica another voicemail.

Hermione’s beautiful and sharp daughter, and his impetuous and scholarly son, had somehow found their way to each other. He knew the road ahead wouldn’t be easy for the two of them, but FP hoped and wondered if his son would be given the chance to play out the love story that FP hadn’t been able to have.

“I love her, dad. And…Veronica loves me too.”

FP smiled to himself when he thought about the look of complete and utter elation on Jughead’s face when he’d told his dad the news of his relationship with the raven-haired daughter of Hiram and Hermione Lodge.

It forced FP to think back to the day that he had seen Hermione in the halls of school, no longer wearing her Catholic girl getup, but instead, wearing a crimson red silk dress and a set of pearls around her neck. She looked like a woman who bathed in diamonds and drank champagne every night. The transformation looked incredible on her, but it had created an undeniable ache in FP’s heart.

“He’s not right for you, Hermione.” FP had told her months later, right before school ended for the summer.

Hermione had shook her head.

“You can’t have it all if you want life to be a certain way, FP.” She had told him.

FP had glared at her, angry that she had seemed to give up on the one thing she had seemed to base everything around.

“What about love, Hermione? What about the quote you said you lived by? That loving is what makes everything around you better. You don’t love that creep Hiram Lodge.”

Hermione had crossed her arms, giving him that look that told him she was ready to challenge everything he had to say.

“Maybe I don’t. Maybe I never will. Maybe my heart will always secretly belong to someone else. But what of it? I want a life that’s better than what I’ve had. I want to see the world, FP. I want to see the paintings I’ve read about. I want to visit the places that I’ve only seen in photos. What’s so bad about that?”

FP sighed. As much as he understood how she felt, he still didn’t agree with her choice.

“The bad part is that you would be missing out on something that could be so much greater than all of those things combined.” He said as he touched her cheek, carefully stepping closer to her.

He thought she would move back from him, but instead, she stood like a statue, barely moving as FP closed the gap between them. His lips hovering so close to hers that he could already feel the energy throughout his whole body, the energy that had been forcing him to finally do the one thing he’d been wanting to do all school year.

And that’s when he kissed her. His mouth on hers opened a floodgate of hidden emotions and needs, of endless pining and an insatiable desire that he knew she had been feeling just as much as he had been. A woman like Hermione had a kiss that couldn’t lie, that couldn’t fight the storm inside her heart.

But when she finally pulled away from him, she let out a deep sigh. FP knew that whatever she was about to say to him wasn’t the one thing he’d been wanting to hear from her.

“FP…” She said breathlessly, still not having recovered from their passionate liplock.

“You…you mean so much to me. I never wanted to tell you that, but it’s true. You’re unlike anyone I’ve ever known. You’re a natural born leader. People respect you and want to know you. They want to fill the space around you whenever you are in the room. Sometimes I’m so amazed by it that all I can do is imagine what you could do with that kind of power. I think about the influence you could have on people, on this world.”

She finally looked him in the eyes, and his heart melted at what he saw within them, as if he could see right into her soul but only because she was allowing him to.

“You are going to do amazing things. You’re going to take care of people, because I know your heart. And just like with everyone else, I’ll be watching. No matter how far away I might be, or how much we may grow apart, I’ll always want to remember that I knew you once. And I’ll always hope that you find your treasure.”

FP felt as if his heart had shattered into millions of pieces, but he knew she had meant everything she had said. He knew that there was a part of Hermione’s that he had taken up residence in, just as she had done to him.

He wasn’t sure what life was going to bring him, or how he would feel about Hermione as the years went by. But regardless, he wanted to never forget what she had brought into his life.

She had been the one to kiss him one more time before she had left him standing in the empty school hallway. And he remembered never wanting to forget how it had felt to have her lips on his so willingly and so fervently.

It was the memory of that time in FP’s life that he was glad he had held onto, even though he hadn’t had much of a friendship with Hermione ever since she’d moved back to Riverdale.

But he was thankful to know her daughter, Veronica, who was so much like her mother in so many ways. And to see how happy she had made Jughead was something a father could only hope for when it came to his only son. The love of a good woman who was willing to take the risk, and who he was willing to risk it all for in return.

It made him proud of Veronica and Jughead. And also proud of himself and Hermione for both having raised children who had made the choice to jump in head first instead of holding back just because they didn't think they could have it all.

It was a beautiful thing to see, and FP cherished it. Just as he had once cherished a quiet Catholic girl who had so unexpectedly taught him more in one school year than he had learned in his whole life. And who he would always be grateful to for believing he was so much more than what everyone else saw.

 

The End.

 


End file.
